Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Why Aren't There More Horror MMOs? - Garrett Fuller at MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Why Aren't There More Horror MMOs? - Garrett Fuller at MMORPG.com
MMO games have been made in many settings. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or even Superhero they have all been launched and made money. It is a huge shame that the Horror genre of game has never seen a solid MMO on the market. For years, CCP held the rights to World of Darkness and it looked like we’d get a vast game of werewolves, mages, and most of all vampires. However, that project ended and now we are left with next to nothing in terms of horror for MMOs.
Comments
Funcom delivered on a solid action game which has loads of horror
elements."
TSW was not an action game (as the "we hate the combat" crowd yelled as well for years), and wasn't entirely horror setting either (just the horrors we have in myths and legends and folk tales), but at least it was an MMO.
"For now, all hope lies in a reboot of Funcom's Secret World"
Errr... colour me puzzled, but why exactly you hope for that, if the title is more horror MMOs? Legends will be a single/co-op game, and not an MMO.
Do you like the Deftones?
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
The player often being solo may allow them to customize the adventures to induce more fear though various environment affects and such without having to worry about taking multiple perspectives in account. Fear can often be in the details and having more control over the presentation of things to the player can only be helpful in that regard.
Supposedly the controls are also to be improved. This should make the game more approachable for players that previously had difficulty with them, making fight... or flight... a better experience for players overall.
These could be some of the things that give hope that the changes to TSW will improve the experience of the game, and perhaps in time the MMORPG horror genre itself if it reaches a high enough level of success to inspire others to give it a try.
Another staple of the horror genre is isolation (and also powerlessness, dissolving reality...):
I'd say it's probably more difficult to create that horror moment when you have maybe 4 other players in your party all potentially going "lol".
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
Suddenly the door opens and an alien leaps out! Before you get time to react, you hear over ingame voice chat : 'KILL THAT ALIEN!' 'WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN ALIEN!?' ' YO MAMA' ' F U' 'CHUCK NORRIS vs ALIEN 1 0' .. from an arriving bunnyhopping zerg. You see one of them tballing the dead alien, then try to shoot you and run past. You hear shooting and cursing untill they are far away and the silence comes back. Alone in the dark abandoned alien ship.
Currently I get my horror fix from ESO and all the great Skyrim mods. When the Warden comes out I will probably make him a werewolf or maybe even a vamp.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
moo all
Humans fight it and brings light and order, Werewolfs should be barbaric and close to nature mixing all...
That the horror mmo I would play
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Not nothing, there is Dark Eden, and requiem.
That is not horror, that is just a bunch of people getting mad, and a bunch of people thinking its funny doing dumb things, like in mortal where they took their naked character and squatted on people.
Immature people are in every game including theme parks
Sure, you could make a really good Lovecraft styled MMORPG but players would have to get used to not actually defeat the monsters there, at best they kill a few cultist and stop the world from dying but you don't go up against the elder Gods, you don't even go up against most of their minions. A star vampire is relatively weak and should still wipe your group or raid.
Sword and sorcery games are about you kicking @ss , in a horror game you are severely underpowered and use detective work to save the world, or you flee from an insane mass murderer in a goofy mask. Direct confrontation is just not the way to go in a horror game unless you made one where the players were the monsters.
Horror work fine in single player or co-op but I don't think most MMOers could take that they can't outlevel the Lovecraftian monsters. Survival and sanity is the goal in a horror game, not loot and XP and I don't think the general MMOer could take that. More people here then the average gamer (We do have more then a few Lovecraft fans here including me) but still not enough.
Now, a zombie survival MMO is another matter, or an alien invasion game but they are more a genre in themselves then pure horror.
It is not unlikely that a good horror MMO could be successful if done right but I just don't see any publisher betting on it, you would need to attract a very different audience the usual MMO fans. And yeah, TSW is kinda horror, more Delta green then CoC and while it is a pretty good game it never became that popular with mainstream gamers and it is at least 50% action instead of a pure horror game.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
A Hero game is a joke,those devs are trying to sell utter crap games based on ONLY the super hero theme.
Fantasy offers the developer the ability to go in several directions.
A Horror game, a GOOD one would need a deep story and be well designed throughout from start to finish and not just randomly adding content week by week.
The very few Horror type games i tried to get into had almost no animations and no depth.They had the story but little else.So imo these devs are similar to space type games,aiming for a cheap budget game design.
If a dev took it seriously and put some money and effort into it ,i am sure it would be a big hit but NOBODY is doing it.
As to "making money" NONE of these games are making money based on quality of game or the HORROR theme,they are making money based on shallow game ideas like cheap deathmatch/LMS mods or like H1Z1 that doesn't even have the zombies or ANY horror factor in it's most popular part of the game.
Even all the popular games are not selling on merit,they are making money because of ladders and rankings and esports.I see it every single day in Twitch...." i just have to get legend" i just have to get gold rank ,i have to get number one on ladder.As soon as the rankings and ladders are at the end of the season ,nobody cares and go off to play other games
You remove ESPORT/ladders/rankings ,basically the $$$ factor and these games all die and VERY quickly.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
* more info, screenshots and videos here
Something like @Yanocchi mentioned might work though. Like SWTOR has a few areas like that (the Rakghoul outbreak flashpoints and the abandoned Czerka spaceship that you go to for the HK parts, which used to be a research facility. It felt very Sci-fi horror a la Alien.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/